Update: Had a good chat with Daryl Wilcox, and it looks like we’ve come to a sensible compromise that will allow Tim to do his job and Response Source to maintain its purity. All’s well, etc.
My staff writer at NMK — Tim Hoang — works for the PR company, Rainier, as well. That’s always something we’ve made very clear. I was (and remain I’ve calmed down now — and DW was very charming.) absolutely furious to learn that he has been banned from using the Response Source service today on account of his PR background.
For those who don’t know, Response Source allows journalists to poll PR agencies for help — “do you know any experts on mobile apps?”, “got any case studies on businesses making successful use of MySpace?”; that sort of thing, in our case.
One of our key anxieties in the initial decision to employ Tim — who is a paid & taxed employee of the University of Westminster in this role — was making sure that his PR job would not infringe on his duties as a reporter for NMK. It’s an issue we’ve discussed and thought about for a long time, believe me. There are clearly opportunities for abuse, but they’re ones that Tim and I are very well-aware of and perfectly able to execute professional judgement over. Of the dozens of sources he’s used over the last two months, two were Rainier clients — to add differentiation and substance to stories, when he couldn’t find other people keen to comment. (Ironically, getting more of these other voices was one of the reasons he used Response Source). I agonised about both of them for a little while — I edit all his stories — but concluded that the extra comment had justifiable merit. In both cases, Tim informed me freely of the connection; we were transparent about the connection in the stories; and I approved it. After all, I have very little compunction about using people I’ve met in previous roles as sources: that’s what you do as a reporter.
The reason for the ban isn’t known to me in full and was not disclosed, but RS has apparently perceived a conflict of interests, in response to complaints from some other PR agency(ies).
How exactly would this work? Tim polls other PR agencies for input into a story, and that would be a problem for them for what reason? Do they think that he wouldn’t include input from competitors? So why ask the question in the first place? That he would sneak questions like ‘fancy a new agency?’ into his interviews? I think the yellow-pages might be a better source.
One more thing annoys me about this. I am the editor and publisher of NMK. Why didn’t anyone take whatever concerns they have to me, rather than a third-party? Or to my boss, the director of NMK?
F**king infantile. I will not use Response Source again while this situation continues. I have forwarded this info@dwpub.com — if anyone has a better contact, let me know.
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Have either you or Tim tried to speak to Daryl Wilcox at Response Source. I’d be surprised if he approved of this. Besides I can think of other people who combine PR with some freelance journalism, especially in specialist trade mags. The key as you say is transparency.
And in Tim’s defence he makes lots of efforts to proactively reach out to other PR companies to give them and their clients an opportunity to comment on this stories.
Daryl has been in contact, and hopefully we’ll be able to come to an understanding on Monday.
Daryl Wilcox has been really good about it and i can understand why they have the rules in place. It’s just annoying that had other PR agencies not complained it wouldn’t have been a big issue. Hopefully this will be sorted out early next week as it saves me a lot of time and effort and helps give another angle to the stories i write.
Daryl’s one of the good guys so I’m glad it’s been resolved, and so promptly too — that’s a good case study in blogosphere relations.
Seems someone tried to frame you guys up eh? Snarky b’stards! :)
It’s funny, tons of journalists do a bit of PR consultancy on the side. In fact, although it’s reduced a bit now, many used Response Source to advertise books, courses etc. Not that I’m complaining — it’s how it all works.
I think that Rainier and Tim, in particular, know how to exercise proper professional judgement. As long as NMK know who Rainier’s clients are, then there’ll soon spot if it’s looking a bit dodgey. As a PR who’s on Tim’s list, I trust the fact that he won’t try to sell to my clients. It’s in his and Rainiers’ interests. After all, reputation is everything in PR :-)
Good point, Philip. I’ve done a couple of bits of PR work as a freelance myself.
As you say, it’d make Tim look a complete charlatan if he tried to shill his clients on NMK. And us look like mugs. OTOH, it would seem over-zealous to prejudice *against* Rainier clients. We’ve just agreed to be subtle and sensible about it… Put the story first and then choose the most appropriate spokespeople he can muster.